History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 24

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802

USA > Missouri > History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 24

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The early life of Milton Hawkins was spent on his father's farm and in obtaining an edu- cation through the common schools of Wash- ington county. In 1872, when twenty-three years of age, he became a citizen of Black- well and one of its active young merchants, forming a partnership with Clay Wallen. This association continued until the death of the latter, in 1874, when the brother, Chris- topher Wallen, entered into a like business relation. Mr. Hawkins' brother, Newton, was Mr. Wallen's successor as a partner in the business; then its founder conducted it alone for some three years; for the succeed- ing four years he was in partnership with his nephew, H. N. MeGrady, after which he was sole proprietor until 1900, when Mr. MeGrady again assumed an interest in the well estab- lished business and retained it until 1909. In the year named Mr. Hawkins' son-in-law, L. E. Cole, purchased the business outright, thus concluding an active and successful mercantile career covering the unusually long period of thirty-seven years. Although a firm believer in Democratic principles, he is "out of politics" for the very good reason that he has never been in them. Masonry, however, has always strongly appealed to his sentiments of good fellowship and "square dealing" in the world, and he has long been an earnest member of that order.

In 1881 Mr. Hawkins wedded Miss Kitty MeCormick, of Jefferson county, and one child, Lucy Newton (now Mrs. Cole), was

born to their union. Mrs. Hawkins was born November 18, 1861, and died on the 19th of May, 1911. Her father, Thomas F. died when she was quite young, but she was reared by a loving mother of rare judgment and de- veloped into an affectionate, fine woman, and a wife of beautiful and elevating character. In her religious faith she was a Methodist of broad charity and intellectual views; and the husband and father is of the same belief and holds the same Christlike attitude toward his fellows.

OWEN ALONZO SMITH, M. D. Among the gifted medical and surgical practitioners in Farmington and Saint Francois county Dr. Owen Alonzo Smith, specialist in eye, ear, nose and throat, stands preeminent. A man who keeps ever in touch with the march of progress in his field of usefulness, he devotes his whole life to his profession and is highly esteemed by both fraternity and laity. In glancing over the achievement of a man such as he, one is reminded of the lines of Pope, "A wise physician, skill'd our wounds to heal, Is more than armies to the public weal."

Dr. Smith was born in Jerseyville, Illi- nois, March 31, 1868, a son of Alfred Alonzo Smith. The father was born in 1846, in Illi- nois, and received his education in the com- mon schools of that locality and period, which means that it was of a somewhat limited character. When quite young he learned the copper trade and he has followed this in con- nection with his farming operations through- out almost the entire course of his life. In latter years, it is true, he has given up cooper- ing and has devoted his time to farming. He was married at about the age of twenty years to Miss Isabelle Amerika Miller, their union being solemnized at Jerseyville, Illinois. Mrs. Smith was the daughter of Dr. Miller, a dentist of Jerseyville. At the breaking out of the Civil war, A. A. Smith enlisted in the Union army and acted as a drummer in that great struggle. When peace returned to the devastated land, the young man came back to Missouri and bought a farm in Jefferson county, his land being a part of the Kennet traet. He engaged in its cultivation for about eight years and then on account of ill health abandoned the great basic industry and took up his residence in Nashville, Illinois, where he engaged in the cooper business again. After a period of years devoted to his old trade, Mr. Smith came back to his farm in Jefferson county and upon its fertile and

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well-situated acres he is now living. He and his wife are the parents of three sons,-Owen A., the immediate subject of this review; Ulysses Scott, a physician at Hannibal, Mis- souri; and Harold Howard, engaged in the practice of the law in Oklahoma. In politics Mr. Smith, the elder, is in harmony with the men and measures of the Prohibition party in later years, and was a Republican in early life; he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church ; and in his lodge affilia- tion he is a member of the ancient and august Masonic order.

Dr. Owen A. Smith received his early edu- cation in the public schools of Nashville, Illi- nois, and after finishing their curriculum he entered the serious walks of life as a wage earner as book-keeper in a store at Festus, Missouri. He began the study of medicine in 1889, in the medical department of Wash- ington University, at St. Louis, and took his degree as a physician in 1892. For a year he served as an interne in the city hospital in St. Louis and then for a like period acted as as- sistant physician for the Crystal Plate Glass Company at Crystal City. Subsequent to that he became associated with Dr. C. P. Poston at Bonne Terre and was surgeon for two im- portant corporations,-the St. Joe Lead Com- pany and the Mississippi River & Bonne Terre Railroad. Believing that the greatest usefulness can be attained through specializa- tion, Dr. Smith went to St. Louis and took special work in the eye and ear, and having exhausted the resources of that metropolis he went on to New York, where in the famous Post-Graduate College he continued his studies, gaining practical experience at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. His first identification with Farmington was in 1902, when he began practice as a specialist in the eye, ear, nose and throat. He is a widely known member of the profession and is con- nected with some of the most important or- ganizations of the same, his name being upon the rolls of the American Medical Associa- tion, the City Hospital Medical Society of St. Louis, the State Medical Association, the Saint Francois County Medical Association and the South-Eastern Missouri Medical As- sociation. He is also affiliated with the order whose chief object is to extend the principle of human brotherhood,-the Masonic-and in the matter of religious conviction he is affil- iated with the Christian church.

Dr. Smith was happily married when, in December, 1893, he was united to Miss Nellie

E. Swink, of Festus, Missouri, their marriage being solemnized while the subject was in practice at Crystal City. Mrs. Smith is a daughter of J. E. Swink, a well known citizen of Festus, Missouri. The Doctor and his wife share their charming home with two sons, whose names are Laurence Augustus and Harry Owen.

D. B. PANKEY, cashier of the Bank of Ken- nett, would never have attained the promi- nence he now holds if he had not possessed a discriminating quality to a very large ex- tent. Not that he is a negative quality by any means; he is most decidedly alive and full of enterprise, but he has put on one side all those things which though good in them- selves have no part in his life. He has known what to accept and what to reject, where to trust and where to suspect. He has chosen this thing and that thing as the ones of all others he would choose to have in his own life and the result is the man as he is to-day.

D. B. Pankey was born near Clarkton, Dunklin county, Missouri, July 17, 1861. His father was David Y. Pankey, born at Richmond, Virginia, where he received his education and was brought up on the farm. He became a tobacco grower and dealer in the south, owning a great number of slaves to cultivate and harvest the tobacco, etc. He always treated them in the most consid- erate manner and they were devoted to him. He married Miss Sally Jones, a sprightly young woman, a native of Rich- mond, like himself. All business was begin- ning to be very much demoralized in the south and Mr. Pankey was losing money on his plantation. He, therefore, sold off his plantation for the small sum he could real- ize, took his wife and some of his slaves and brought them to Missouri. He settled at Clarkton, where he started a store and also bought a small farm. In 1861, when the war finally broke out, he raised a regiment for the Confederate army, he being its colonel. He served throughout the war, at the end of which time he set his slaves free, but they never lost the feeling of affection and devo- tion towards him, but would have cheerfully laid down their lives for him at any time. One of them, Charles Birthwright, with his wife Bettie, live in Missouri and are leaders among the colored people of Clarkton. Colonel Pankey lived in Cardwell, Missouri, later and died there in January, 1910, at the

Family

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HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI

age of seventy-four, his wife having died many years before. The Colonel served the county as county collector. He was a man who had served his country in the army and in civil affairs. He was very well known all over the county and universally respected.

The Civil war commenced the year that D. B. arrived in the world. He remembers nothing of its horrors, but does remember the loss of his mother when he was very young. He was brought up by his father, who did his best to train him in the right way. The re- sults seem to show that his methods were ef- fective, if at times severe. D. B. received his education in the schools of Clarkton, in the Southeastern Missouri Normal at Cape Girardeau and on his father's farm and in his father's store, learning as much at the two latter as he did in school. In 1883 he was appointed deputy county clerk, under Robert Mills. After two years Mr. Mills died and Mr. Pankey was appointed in his place. At the end of his term he was re-elected, mak- ing his time of service six years in all as clerk and two years as deputy clerk. He was at one time mayor of Kennett, rendering the best of satisfaction to all political parties and to the people in general. He was one of the organizers of the Bank of Kennett, which was started January 19, 1891, with a capital of fifteen thonsand dollars. T. E. Baldwin was the first president, W. F. Shelton, the vice president and D. B. Pankey the cashier. Mr. Baldwin was president until January, 1904, when failing health forced him to re- sign. He died soon afterward. He was suc- ceeded by T. R. R. Ely, who held the office for one year, W. F. Shelton, Junior, being elected president in January, 1905, and he still retains the office. W. F. Shelton con- tinued to be a director as long as be lived. For a time W. F. Shelton, Junior, was vice president, the office that is now held by T. R. R. Ely. Mr. Pankey has remained the cashier of the bank ever since its organization. The capital is now twenty-five thousand dol- lars, with a certified surplus of twenty-five thousand dollars and undivided profits of five thousand dollars The deposits are about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The bank owns the building in which it does busi- ness and the stock is all owned locally. They do a strictly banking business and have never missed an annual dividend. Mr. Pankey is president of the Kennett Ice and Electric Company, having helped to organize it. He is also president of the Kennett Store Com-

pany, carrying a line of men's furnishing goods. He is president of the St. Louis, Ken- nett and Southeastern Railroad Company, having succeeded R. H. Jones at his death. Mr. Pankey is a director and treasurer of the Dunklin County Publishing Company, which is the owner of the Dunklin Democrat. In 1904 he was chairman of the County Com- mittee on the local ticket, when local option took effect in this county, and was active in that fight and the county has re- mained local option. There were then five saloons in Kennett, a town of fifteen hundred at that time, and Mr. Pankey's life was threatened several times during that cam- paign. The same issue came np in the city of Kennett in 1909 and he was chairman of the committee in this campaign and won by nine hundred votes. He is a Mason, a mem- ber of Kennett Lodge, A. F. & A. M., No. 68, of Helen Chapter, No. 117, Campbell Coun- cil No. 33, of Campbell, Missouri, and of Malden Commandery, No. 61, of Malden.

In May, 1888, Mr. Pankey married Josie E. Rayburn, of Dunklin county, to which union three children have been born, Hugh B., who is a law student in the University of Mis- souri, Russell R. and one deceased.

One would not imagine that Mr. Pankey would find room in his busy life to do much in church work, but he is as a matter of fact an elder in the Presbyterian church, nor does he confine his religion to his attendance at church and to his fulfilment of the duties that devolve on an elder, but he takes it with him in his every day life, it is at the bank, and in his various other occupations through- out the day. That is the kind of religion which counts after all. Religion has ceased to be an emotion which finds relief in talk, but it is a living force, which makes a man more honest, more considerate of his fellows, more active in his efforts to aid mankind. Any other kind of a religion is of no real value, but that is the sort that Mr. Pankey practices. A man of such beliefs and actions could not fail to be a power for betterment in the community and as such Mr. Pankey's fellow citizens regard him.

T. B. DRUM is the youngest of thirteen children born to John and Mary Fulbright Drum. Thirteen is said to be an unlucky number, but Mr. Drum's career has been of the sort to help clear the reputation of the maligned number. His parents were both born in North Carolina and his father came

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to Missouri at the age of eight, in the year 1816. Ten of the children of John Drum lived to maturity.

T. B. Drum was born March 10, 1854, in Cape Girardeau county. He received his education in the district schools and until he was twenty-five, worked on the farm. From 1872 to 1881 he operated a threshing machine during the seasons, going about to the dif- ferent farms. He was one year in Perry county and spent some four years in Sedge- wiekville, in a store and on the farm before going into partnership with his brother in a mercantile concern at Sedgewickville.

After two years T. B. Drum bought out his brother Robert and since 1883 has con- ducted the business alone. He has built up an unusually large trade and does an exten- sive business in retail produce exchange with the residents of the surrounding country. The territory from which he draws his cus- tomers extends for miles beyond Sedgewick- ville. His ten thousand dollar stock of mer- chandise is housed in a fine business block and his home is one of the elegant residences of the town. Aside from his store, Mr. Drum has extensive interests in Sedgewickville real estate and is a stockholder in the Bollinger County Bank. He owns one hundred and ninety-five acres of land in the county, on which he keeps some stock, besides doing general farming, and has investments in Colorado mines and real estate. He is a notary public in Sedgewickville.

On February 27, 1883, Mr. Drum was mar- ried to Miss Flora Octavia Howard, daugh- ter of Monroe Howard of Cape Girardeau county. Only one of their three children is living, Myrtle, now Mrs. Edward Crites. On July 27, 1911, Howard Leroy Crites was born, and Mr. Drum became a grandfather before reaching his three-score years.

At Cape Girardeau Mr. Drum is a mem- ber of the Elks' lodge, No. 639. Politically he gives his support to the Democratic party.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TOWL. Missouri has been the home of Benjamin Franklin Towl as many years as have elapsed since his birth, he being a native son of the state. This gentleman, who is the cashier of the Bank of Leadwood, is also the organizer of that sub- stantial institution and he has given his best strength and abilities to the furtherance of its affairs.

Mr. Towl was born in Caledonia, Washing- ton county, December 12, 1872, the son of

William Towl, a native of Hibaldstow, Eng- land. The elder Mr. Towl left the old coun- try at the age of sixteen years and crossed the sea to find his fortunes in the "land of the free and the home of the brave." In a short time he found his way to Potosi, Mis- souri, and soon found a field of usefulness as a clerk in a store. As he was an ambitious and thrifty young fellow, in a very short time he had opened a store of his own at Cale- donia. He married Miss Anna Kendall, of Potosi, and to their union six children were born, he whose name inaugurates this review being the youngest of the number. William Towl died in Annapolis, Iron county, in 1890, and his cherished and devoted wife survived him for more than a decade, her demise occurring in 1900. He was Republican in politics and was known as a supporter of all such causes as seemed likely to him to prove of benefit to the whole of society. He at- tended the Presbyterian church.

Benjamin Franklin Towl spent his earliest days at Caledonia, and was about nine years of age when his parents removed to Anna- polis. Thus his public school education was divided between these two towns. He sub- sequently entered the Belleview Collegiate Institute and there received higher instruc- tion. When his school days were over, he entered the employ of his brother's firm, Towl & Russell, of Marquand, Madison coun- ty, these gentlemen being engaged in the lum- ber business. The year 1897 marks a radical change of occupation for the subject and his first identification with the banking business, for in that year he was offered and accepted a position as assistant cashier in the Saint Francois County Bank at Farmington, Mis- souri. After holding this position for four years and learning much about banking, he became cashier of the Bank of Saint Gene- vieve and retained that office for two years, displaying sound banking knowledge and in- defatigable zeal in building up its affairs. His next move was to come to Leadwood and here on September 27, 1905, he opened the Bank of Leadwood, he himself taking the position of cashier. The other officers are as follows : John S. Towl, president ; Thomas R. Tolleson, vice president; William Towl, as- sistant cashier. The Bank of Leadwood is incorporated for ten thousand dollars and in its career of six years has experienced a sound prosperity.

Mr. Towl was happily married on the 16th day of November, 1905, to Miss Emma Mark-

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ert, daughter of C. Markert, of Muskogee, Oklahoma. They have one child, a small son, christened Benjamin Franklin Jr.

ED. BURLISON. In the years of the twen- tieth century industry and good management have everywhere been well rewarded in the field of agriculture, but perhaps nowhere to a more generous degree than in Southeast Missouri. One of the citizens of this section who would readily be named among the suc- cessful farmers who a few years ago were at the bottom of the ladder is Mr. Ed. Burlison, whose farming interests are near Horners- ville in Dunklin county.

Born April 29, 1869, in Lawrence county, Tennessee, his father of Irish stock, originally from North Carolina, and his mother of Ger- man ancestry, he grew up in the Tennessee mountain district and never had the advan- tages of schools. Though he spent the first thirty years of his life about his native place, he was entirely without means when he arrived in Southeast Missouri in 1898. With his family he located on twenty acres of rented land near where he now lives, and stayed there until he had made two crops, which netted him three hundred dollars This money he used as advance payment on a farm of forty acres worth twenty dollars an acre, and got the rest on time. He moved to this place in August, 1899, and in the following May his wife died. She was Miss Ella Pipk- ings, of Tennessee, and her three children now living are: William, who married Miss May McCauliff and lives in Malden; John, at Malden; and Miss Pearl, at home. Mr. Burlison's present wife was Miss Bertha Statler, who was born in Bollinger county, Missouri, May 22, 1881. They have the fol- lowing children at home: Mabel, Pat, Mike and Ruby.

From the time he made his first purchase of a farm Mr. Burlison has steadily pros- pered. He later bought another forty for one thousand dollars, and he has refused twelve thousand dollars for these eighty acres. At the present time he has one hun- dred and sixty acres within three quarters of a mile of Hornersville, and it is worth one hundred and fifty dollars an acre. He has three houses on his lands, and his rents amount to eight hundred dollars a year aside from the home place. He has a good home and is rearing his family in comfort, and he enjoys the thorough esteem of the community.

Fraternally he is a member of the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. In politics he is a Democrat.

JAMES M. LOGAN, who is now living in vir- tual retirement on his fine farm of three hun- dred and eighty acres, eligibly located a mile and three-quarters east of Belleview, in Iron county, Missouri, is one of the promi- nent and influential agriculturists of this sec- tion of the state, where he has resided during the greater portion of his life time. He was born six miles northwest of his present home, the date of his nativity being the 2nd of No- vember, 1833, and he is a son of John V. and Elizabeth H. (Mallow) Logan. The father was born at Salem, Virginia, in 1809, and he came to Missouri in 1821, with his parents, James and Lucy (VanLear) Logan, both of whom were likewise born in the Old Do- minion commonwealth and who settled in Washington county, now Iron county, after their arrival in Missouri. Here James Logan purchased a farm, which he improved and on which he continued to reside until his death, on the 25th of December, 1832. The Logan family is of Scotch extraction and the vari- ous members of the name have ever been devout Presbyterians in their religious faith. Lucy (VanLear) Logan was born on the 30th of December, 1784, in Virginia, and she was summoned to eternal rest in Iron county, Missouri, on the 25th of January, 1859. Mr. and Mrs. James Logan became the parents of fourteen children, none of whom are living at the present time. Hannah, born on the 19th of May, 1808, married Mr. Bonney and they are both deceased; John, father of him whose name forms the caption for this re- view, was born on the 17th of October, 1809, and died on the 22ud of February, 1875; Sarah L., born November 29, 1811, is deceased, as are also Margaret Ann, born April 9, 1813; Eliza Jane, born February 1, 1815, and who died at Ironton; Lucy, born Septem- ber 13, 1816, and died at Potosi, Missouri; Mary Park, born June 19, 1818; and Lila, born November 1, 1819, and died at Potosi, Missouri; Angeline, born May 19, 1821, died in Texas; Eveline Martha was born on the 3d of January, 1823, and died at the old homestead; Lueza, born January 26, 1824, died at the old homestead; James D., born December 28, 1825, died at the age of four- teen in Reynolds county, Missouri; Robert

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B., born June 10, 1827, died August 2, 1883, at Caledonia, Missouri; and Joseph A., born November 9, 1829, died on the 11th of Octo- ber, 1860, in Collinsville, Illinois.

John V. Logan was reared and resided in Belleview valley all his life. He was a cabi- net-maker and carpenter by trade and in later life was a merchant at Ironton, where he resided for ten years and where he was the efficient incumbent of the office of post- master for a number of years. At one time he also served as justice of the peace, was judge of Iron county for several years, and for one term was a member of the general assembly in the Missouri state legislature. He was originally an old-line Whig in pol- ities and later transferred his allegiance to the Republican party. He was a devout member of the Presbyterian church at Iron- ton, in which he was an elder. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Mallow, was born thirty miles from Fincastle, in Vir- ginia, on the 23d of March, 1811, and she died on the 7th of April, 1892, having survived her honored husband for seventeen years. Barnabas Mallow, a brother of Mrs. Logan, is now living near Palmer, Missouri, he being ninety-one years of age on the 11th of Octo- ber, 1911.

James M. Logan, the immediate subject of this review, was the eldest in order of birth in a family of seven children, and has resided in the neighborhood of his birth place during most of his life time, having spent twelve years at one time in Reynolds county, Mis- souri. Without moving, he has lived in Ripley, Shannon and Reynolds counties and also with no moves has lived in Washington and Iron counties. He has been identified with agricultural operations during most of his active career and he is now the owner of a finely improved estate of three hundred and eighty-five acres, sections of which are oper- ated by tenants. In politics Mr. Logan is an uncompromising advocate of the principles for which the Democratic party stands sponsor, and while he has never manifested anght of ambition for political preferment of any kind he served for two years as public administrator of Iron county. In the time- honored Masonic order he is a valued and ap- preciative member of Mosaic Lodge, No. 351, Free and Accepted Masons; and of the Chap- ter at Ironton, Royal Arch Masons. He was formerly affiliated with the Independent Or- der of Odd Fellows and he and his wife are zealous members of the Presbyterian church,

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History of southeast Missouri : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Volume II, Part 24

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 802

Author: Douglass, Robert Sidney. 4n
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 802